1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer display devices (projectors, direct view flat panels, etc.), more particularly to those display devices intended for use with a wide range of computer interfaces.
2. Background of the Invention
The typical system display, such as a computer and workstation display device, has a cathode-ray tube (CRT) driven display. This type of display device displays data in an analog fashion. The computer system creates the image data in the digital domain and must convert it to analog data before transferring it to the display device.
The display device may have the capability to further process the data before displaying it. With the advent of fast and powerful digital signal processors, the display device may need data in digital format in order to perform digital processing. In this case, the data must be reconverted back to digital, processed, reconverted back to analog and then displayed. This induces noise and instability in the data resulting from the analog to digital converter's sampling of the digital data.
Regardless of how the display device processes the data, the conversion from digital to analog currently occurs before sending the data to the display device, even if the display device is itself digital, since the current standard is analog. With the move to a more digital world, digital display devices have become a more available option for computer systems. Additionally, not only is it desirable for the video signals to be digital, but a digital data stream can easily include distinct data signals for control of the system and the display device.
Therefore, a need exists for a display device interface that supports both analog and digital formats and eliminates any unnecessary transformation between the two.